Climate Change

The rich countries cause climate change, but it’s the poorer countries that are suffering the consequences. We’re supporting communities who are trying to cope with the disastrous effects of climate change. And we’re challenging world leaders to do something about it.

ActionAid is working with communities, and challenging world leaders, to protect poor people from the disastrous effects of climate change caused by human action.

If not urgently addressed, climate change is likely to place millions of more people at risk of increased hunger, disease and disasters.

A growing body of evidence, including the recent reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), paints a picture of falling crop yields, problems with access to water, the degradation of many eco-systems, and an increase in diseases such as malaria, spread by insects.

As well as responding to climate-related disasters, ActionAid is working with communities to help them deal with a changed climate. We are also campaigning for change at the global level, because international action is needed to make a difference.

Climate change debts

ActionAid is calling on rich governments to repay their climate debts. Rich countries need to drastically reduce their emissions so that developing countries have scope to grow their economies without destroying the planet.

The rich world needs to provide finance and technology to enable developing countries to reduce emissions, adapt effectively to climate change, compensate communities for loss and damages and chart low-emission pathways out of poverty.

Food rights and climate change

We work with farmers to help them understand and adapt to changes in climate. Our HungerFREE campaign focuses on the global food crisis pushing more people into extreme poverty. We also work with a few countries to analyze the impact of biofuels on food security and advocating for appropriate policy measures.

Preparing for the worst

ActionAid works with partners and poor communities in country programmes including Ghana, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Malawi, India, Vietnam, Brazil and Kenya, to understand and deal with the impact of climate change. Our projects help communities work out ways to adapt, take on sustainable forms of farming, and prepare for disasters.

We see climate change as a global justice issue. The vast majority of global greenhouse gas emissions have been created by rich countries, but it's the poorest and most vulnerable who are already dealing with the consequences.

Some claim that Durban has opened a new ‘door’ to negotiate a more comprehensive legally binding agreement. But I would call it a debacle, where the deathbed of equity as a principle was prepared and...